#25 Download for Free from www.pandius.com The Mystara Magazine STRONGHOLDS The twenty-fifth issue of Mystara’s premier magazine leads you to explore cities, palaces, castles and secret lairs, refuges or obstacles for brave adventurers! A free download from thepiazza.org.uk pandius.com Previous Issues FREE Downloads of Previous Issues Previous issues of THRESHOLD - the Mystara Also available at the same location are higher Magazine, are available for download from the resolution versions of the maps that were Vaults of Pandius website. included in the issue’s PDF, allowing greater detail to be viewed. #1 - “Karameikos” #2 - “Vaults of Pandius” #3 - “The Sea of Dread” #4 - “Return to Dread” #5 - “Exploring Davania” #6 - “The Northlands” #7 - “Exploring Norwold” #8 - “Warlordsof Norwold” #9 - “Hollow World” #10 - “Elven Realms” #11 - “Thyatis & Alphatia” #12 - “Ages Past” #13 - “A Crucible of Creatures” #14 - “the Shadowdeep” #15 - “Mystaraspace” #16 - “Dwarves, Gnomes & Hin” #17 - “Western Brun” #18 - “Savage Coast” #19 - “Planes and Immortals” #20 - “Skothar” #21 - “Specularum” #22 - “Adventures & Campaigns” #23 - “Adventures & Campaigns 2” #24 - “Adventures & Campaigns 3” : The Mystara Magazine Issue #25 Contents Contents Editorial......................................................................................3 This Issue’s Contributors............................................................4 Call for Contributors...................................................................6 A Mystara Glossary.....................................................................7 Imperial Palaces & Castles of Thyatis & Alphatia......................8 The City-State of Saffir..............................................................25 Specularum’s Stronghold District part 1..................................43 Port Blight................................................................................51 Encounters in the Dymrak Region...........................................56 The Tale of the Dark Knight...................................................101 Warriors of the Eternal Sun - part 3.......................................108 Mystara Sub-Settings Prt 3.....................................................128 Artwork Sources and Credits..................................................140 Next Issue...............................................................................148 Submission Guidelines...........................................................149 First Published: May 2020 Threshold: The Mystara Magazine is a non-commercial, fan-produced magazine. There is no intention to infringe on anyone’s rights, and in particular not on those of Wizards of the Coast, which holds all rights to the original material on which the magazine is based. All issues of Threshold are available for FREE download from the Vaults of Pandius website 1 : The Mystara Magazine Issue #25 Editorial Credits Editorial Credits Threshold Editorial Team: Editors Issue 24: Francesco Defferrari (Sturm) Allan Palmer (AllanP) Allan Palmer (AllanP) Giampaolo Agosta (Agathokles) Giampaolo Agosta (Agathokles) Francesco Defferrari (Sturm) Layout: Allan Palmer (AllanP) Editors Emeriti Andrew Theisen (Cthulhudrew) Art: Ashtagon Justin Pfeil Angel Tarragon (The Angelic Dragon) Dario Odillo Geoff Gander (Seer of Y'hog) LadyofHats Håvard Robin Jesper Andersen (Spellweaver) V Shane John Calvin (Chimpman) William McAusland Joseph Setorius (Julius Cleaver) Leland (Argentmantle) Cartography: LoZompatore Allan Palmer Micky Giampaolo Agosta Robert Nuttman (RobJN) Irving Galvez Simone Neri (Zendrolion) Douglas Lanford Thorfinn Tait (Thorf) Robin Troy Terrell (CmdrCorsiken) Sturm Thorfinn Tait Additional Reviewers & Proofreaders: Allan Palmer (AllanP), Giampaolo Agosta THRESHOLD logo designed by Thorf John Calvin (Chimpman), Robin, Sturm Thanks To: The Mystara Community, for your support, hard work, and dedication to Mystara. The aims of Threshold magazine: ▪ to provide a venue for community members to present material ▪ to promote the Vaults of Pandius and the material there ▪ to increase the exposure of existing and new articles 2 : The Mystara Magazine Issue #25 Editorial Despite the Covid-19 crisis which as every- And now to the content of this issue: we one knows is affecting the whole world, we look for the first time inside the Imperial managed to produce another great issue of Palaces of Thyatis and Alpharia, then we Threshold magazine. I assure you this was travel to the city state of Saffir in Norwold, not a small feat as the editors were affected the Stronghold district of Specularum, Port by the lockdown in their countries as every- Blight in Karameikos, and then to the one else, and I had the virus myself, even if strongholds of the friendly and not-so fortunately with very mild symptoms. Nev- friendly inhabitants of the Dymrak forest, ertheless, we hope Threshold magazine, continuing the detailed description of this with your help and contributions, will con- region from the previous issues of Thresh- tinue on as we now have reached seven old magazine! After meeting a very evil years of publication! knight, we will continue with the third and final part of the big tabletop conversion of The next issue of Threshold, to be pub- the classic 1991 Mystara videogame, Warri- lished by end 2020, will focus on another ors of the Eternal Sun. And finally we will fundamental theme of fantasy roleplaying: continue exploring the many subsettings of Heroes, Villains and Organizations! Send Mystara with the third and final part of the your proposal to the Threshold mail (check article. Submission guidelines and mail on the last page of the issue) or write in the Theshold Special thanks also to Justin Pfeil (aka war- proposals thread at The Piazza forum riorneedsfood) the famous author of the . “Keep on the Borderlands” webcomic and to Even if we usually have no shortage of arti- Dario Odillo, who both provided original cles, we always need help for proofreading illustrations for this issue! and editing the submissions. Indeed at the moment we are left with two active editors, The Threshold Editorial Team and the therefore it is likely the issues schedule will authors hope you will enjoy this new issue have to be scaled back to two issues a year. as much as we enjoyed putting it together, So anyone willing to help the Threshold and stay tuned for the next issue! Editorial Team please come forward and let us know through the mail or in the above thread at The Piazza. Helping Threshold magazine certainly needs some time com- Francesco Defferrari (Sturm) mitment, but is creative and rewarding work! Editor, Threshold Magazine Issue #25 3 : The Mystara Magazine Issue #25 This Issue’s Contributors Giampaolo Agosta (a.k.a. Agathokles) Justin Pfeil draws comics, is a historical agrees with Schiller that “man is only com- fencer in the Italian tradition, makes armor pletely a man when he plays". Therefore, for his friends, and has played D&D since he makes a point of taking gaming seri- the Red Box was first published. His ously, and real life casually. Besides Mys- current project is a webcomic about charac- tara, his gaming interests include (among ters attempting to survive The Keep on the others) Dark Sun, Planescape, Ravenloft, Borderlands module from the players per- Birthright, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars and spective. Witchcraft RPG. Robin (at The Piazza, Robin D elsewhere) Kyle Knight (aka Gravesguardian on The Female from 1962, she began playing D&D Piazza forum) is wandering Thunder Rift since its earliest days as far back as 1978, dealing with the threats that spring up. soon after becoming “addicted”. Ultimately, she was intimately bound to the world of Irving Galvez (a.k.a. Oleck) Mexican Mystara, because of its complex diversity. A player since the early 80s, amateur Mystara current compiler of massive materials avail- writer since 1996. The time passes and able on Vaults of Pandius & her “Breath of when the days of fantasy flew away with Mystara” blog; and former Teacher of Biol- the age and you reach the stage of responsi- ogy, Ecology, Chemistry, Physics, once trav- bilities, work, family and everyday prob- elling all over Europe as a stage dancer lems, you look back and take those dusty including house parties. Once called “The books of D&D, and escape a moment to Fletcher” at UK GenCon by Bruce Heard for your childhood. Keep on playing!!! her extensive compilation in “Revenge of the Little Ones”. Allan Palmer (a.k.a. AllanP) was first introduced to D&D a long time ago (but Even though Sturm (a.k.a. Francesco Def- not quite in a galaxy far away) by a work ferrari) loves any alternate world, he colleague who set up a gaming group using believes Mystara is incomparably the best the last version of the “blue book” rules. for its vibrant community endlessly delving While dabbling with RuneQuest and Travel- into ethnography, linguistics and history ler along the way, he developed a liking for just to make a little sense of it. Something what would become the world of Mystara like the real world, but with dragons. as the BECMI box sets were released. He has always been fascinated by maps. He is an IT professional and when not indulging in hobbies of panelology, retro tv watching and family history research,uses his various PC skills to consolidate the writings of others into the issues of Threshold. 4 : The Mystara Magazine Issue #25 Editorial From the Mystara Forum at Some features in issues of Threshold carry a “From the Mystara Forum at The Piazza”